Swing Me
by flipstahhz
Summary: She's the only one woman who can get Takeru to ditch a gokon. She's the only one woman who can swing his feelings around in absolute ease. She's the only one woman who will always be an exception to him. [one-shot takari/friendship/mild romance]


_***gokon**_**:** to put it simply a _gokon_ is a group date that is common in the japanese culture. it's aimed for singles people who are (usually) strangers to gather together and get to know each other over food, drinks, karaoke etc.

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**Swing Me**

[ _one-shot_ ]

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_I'm at the park. Where are you?_

That one text raises me from my seat. I'm putting on my coat before I know that I'm doing it, slamming a three thousand yen note onto the sticky table to cover my share.

An arm reaches out. Long emerald-green nails circling around my wrist. Long lashes. Long hair. Long legs. Everything about this woman is _modelesque_; Everything about this woman is not my type.

She pouts, "Why are you leaving, Takeru-kun?"

"An emergency," I tell her. I can't say I'm completely lying because whatever I may witness soon may well be, in fact, an emergency. Ken sends me a betrayed look and I shake my head before he starts to plead.

Ken flashes me a pleading look. He looks betrayed. I murmur to him, "Not lying. It is an emergency."

I open my arms wide to all the men and women present at the gokon. (Don't blame me, I'm a sucker for putting on a good show and being extra when I can get away with it). Once all eyes are on me, I fold my right arm inwards and bend my back to give an exaggerated, grandiose bow. "I'm really sorry, but it is time for me to part."

I'm really _not_.

I regret being here. It all started with Daisuke's master plan of conning me into going to yet _another *__gokon_. He declared that it would be so much fun, that the drinks would be free, that he had the perfect woman to set me up with and other trivial over-the-top reasons. Daisuke's got this special flare, this special talent for spouting bullshit. Iori's the lawyer in the group, but sometimes I think that Daisuke should have taken the career. Daisuke just _knows_ how to hype people so badly into believing whatever he says.

Of course I _had_ to naturally listen to him, which resulted in this night being a sheer and utter disappointment.

Gokons aren't exactly my thing. I prefer meeting women in a less-pressured environment, and without the influence of alcohol since we all know that more than a few drinks can go hand-in-hand at skewing one's judgement. Daisuke's only lately developed a liking for gokons because he discovered a month ago that his ex is getting married. He thinks he's running out of time and is hiding his insecurities under the excuse that he just wants to sleep with everyone. The fucking liar.

Anyway, he's introduced us to are women who clearly want to settle, who want to latch onto a man who is husband material, who are narrowing their eyes at us, determining and analysing if we are worthy of their flirtation based on what we do and our income.

As I said before...they're not my type.

I like women who have goals, who have their own jobs that they want to continue even after they get married. How is it fair that they become stay-at-home wives? Can't I have that option? A stay-at-home husband sounds appealing. I'd dig that lifestyle. That, and well, my little income can't support two people. I don't want my future wife relying solely on me.

Like, what if I get fired?

My boss threatens to fire me on a daily basis since he thinks my writing is too straightforward. He wants me to tone it down because he describes my pieces as insensitive, blatant and too honest that the readers might take offence to it.

I always fight back, arguing that I'd rather tell the audience how it is, rather than lie and gloss over something that is far from the truth. I'm just lucky that because of my infamous candour, I've steadily gained a fan base that appreciates my writing. That's the only reason that is stopping mister boss person from sacking me. I'm an asset (he likes to correct me and call me an '_ass_') to our tiny newspaper company. I help make the company's ends meet, and he knows this.

Half-way out of the bar, my idiot-of-a-friend who organised this mess stumbles across me. He's returning from his toilet break because he's still in the process of zipping up his fly. His face is pink, but I'm not surprised by the numerous pints of beer he's had this night.

Scrunching his nose, he squints at me to decipher whether I really am standing in front of him. As soon as he recognises me (it takes almost a minute), he pushes a palm against my chest and sulks, "Takeru, my man, don't tell me you're already going? The party is just about to get lit-"

"Gotta go."

"You're the life of the party. I need you here! You keep things spicy and fun. And didn't you promise me that you'd wingman me with Yuka-chan?"

I roll my eyes, "You can wingman yourself."

"Where are you going that's more important than this gokon?"

I scratch the back of my head. I know he's going to hate my answer. "She's in trouble..."

"Let me guess," Daisuke pauses for a second, "Hikari, right?"

"Listen, I left my part of the bill on the table. I really need to go-"

"Because Hikari's the only one that can get you on your toes. Why else would you be ditching this gokon?"

"Shut up."

"It's not that she's in trouble. Hikari _is _the trouble," Daisuke remarks. "Move on, Takeru. Can't you just give up on her? We were both crazy for her in high school and, in the end, we both lost. Neither of us dated her because she rejected both of us and started going out with one of Taichi's mates. She loved playing with us. I highly doubt she's in trouble-"

"Dai, I'm not bullshitting." I sigh, "She's at the park."

He lets me off the hook then and tells me to message him if she's alright.

I have to switch two train lines to get back to our hometown. My dress shirt is sticking to my skin. Perspiration from the crowded train, the beers and the panic. Now that I've been by myself, my brain has continually played a series of simulations of what could have gone wrong.

The park has been Hikari's any my precious hiding spot. We'd sneak out in the middle of the night to the park to confide in each other.

It's the same park where Taichi and Yamato forced us to become friends. It's where she'd quietly listen to me as I explained to her that my parents were separating, even though I hadn't been certain what it meant myself. It's the park where Hikari and I had a competition of who could swing higher. I won only by a margin because I had swung too high that I had been thrown off the swings. I remember her crying when the ambulance rushed me to the hospital. It's a wonder I had only sustained a sprained ankle and a fractured shoulder. It's the park where we'd keep each other quiet company, with me lying on my back reading a novel, while she'd do her homework or take photos from a million angles of one single strand of grass.

We had many shared memories there, but only lately have we used the park to be there for each other whenever shit would hit the fan. Like when she had that pregnancy scare after she had a one-night stand with a stranger because she had been piss drunk from Miyako's twenty-first. Like when I had to beg to crash her place because I had been homeless after being jobless for a year, and had a horrible gambling addiction (and refused to tell my family any of it). Like when she found out her Taichi's girlfriend was cheating on him. Like when I got fired from another job. Like when she had been mugged and had a phobia of strangers for a period. Like when I had a scare that there was a possibility that my mother had breast cancer, only to find out that the tumour was luckily benign.

As an adult, drastic moments between Hikari were only kept for this park. It's ironic because the innocent park where we met was also like a therapy ground for us. It's the only place we show each other our weak, raw sides.

Asides from Hikari and I, Daisuke had stumbled across our hiding spot. He only knows about our secret because he had one day, after school, seen us by the bench while Hikari was leaning on my shoulder, wailing. I had explained to him that it had been about her camera getting stolen from the classroom. At school she had braved a face...but as soon as she hit the park to talk to me, she had bawled her eyes out. It wasn't because the camera was an expensive antique - it had been because her late grandfather had given it to her. Daisuke must have been shaken from seeing Hikari breakdown (because she never does to anybody), and jokingly said to me that I should have made a move on her while she was vulnerable. I gutted him when he told me that. But for some reason, afterwards, he gave up on his advances towards her. He said that only crazy people would like somebody like Hikari.

...maybe I am _still_ crazy?

My hands are on my knees as I'm gasping for my breath. With the back of my sleeve, I wipe the sweat from my forehead that's threatening to fall into my eyes. I gaze up and I suppress a groan when I see her on the swings.

If she had been sitting down, hands on the rails, swinging like an ordinary person I wouldn't have been as irritated.

She isn't though. Her feet are flat on the seat, standing up and bending back and forth her body to rock the swing. Her purse is on the sand, contents spilled out. Lipstick, wallet, gloves, phone and even a goddamn sanitary pad. One shoe is missing from her left foot and even in the dim lighting and moonlight, I note her cheeks are pinker than Daisuke's. And although I'm not close to her, I reek heavy liquor.

Hikari's never been a light drinker. She either drinks or she doesn't. She's usually the latter because once she gets alcohol in her system, she's an uncontrollable maniac.

"TK!" She screams, declaring my old nickname. A nickname that I haven't heard since we were children.

I sprint towards her, dodging the many empty beer cans that she's mostly likely consumed. I warn, "Hikari, keep your hands on the rails!"

"What if I don't? Will you catch me?" Hikari slurs. She listens to me anyway, hands latching around the parallel chains.

I smirk. I can't help it. Although she's a menace when she's drunk, she is still fucking amusing to watch. Perhaps I should video her so that I can gain future blackmail material? As I reach into my pocket to grab my own phone out, what she speaks next stops me from taking action.

"Eiji won't."

Raising an eyebrow, I query, "What do you mean Eiji won't?"

"He won't catch me anymore."

I don't understand what she's saying, so I keep watching her. She exhales, leaning back. The swing tilts, but she somehow managed to maintain her balance. Holding onto the side rails, her gaze sweeps upwards as she stares up at the moon.

"We broke up."

"_Oh."_

Despite tears brimming in her eyes, she lets out a laugh. "Is that all you're going to say? I know you hated him, but jeez Takeru."

"I don't hate him per se," I reply.

Yeah, I'm lying. I hate the guy's guts.

It's not only me.

Daisuke, Iori and - shockingly - even Ken dislike him as well.

Eiji just doesn't like _any_ of Hikari's guy friends because his jealousy radar is on a severe level. He's too possessive.

Unfortunately, I happened to be her token best friend, which immediately made Eiji put me on the top of his 'I Hate You' list. Let's just say it wasn't very pleasant coping evil stares, under-the-breath comments, and how he'd make excuses to make Hikari stay with him whenever we'd organise a catch up.

I already have given Hikari my piece of mind about the moron, but I wasn't going to dig deeper and make them break up. I'm not that petty. Although I don't like to admit it, Eiji might have been an ass to the guys and I, but he had always treated Hikari well - and I could never fault him for that.

Until tonight…

"He's a dick for breaking up with you," I mutter. "What an-"

"No, Takeru. It wasn't him. It was me," Hikari interrupts. "I...I broke up with him."

"_What?_" I gape. I definitely had not seen this coming.

"Eiji's moving to Canada because his work has given him a promotion. I haven't told anyone, but we've been fighting about it for months. He really was sure that I'd go with him."

"Why didn't you?" I ask. "You've always wanted to travel. Didn't you dream about being a travel photographer? It was on the top of your bucket list when we were in our teens, like how I was going to marry Rachael Leigh Cook."

"Not _live _overseas. There's a difference, Takeru. And I like what I do now. Photography will always be my hobby. I love all my kids. It took a while to build a rapport with the school and the children, and now that I've earned my reputation...leaving it all behind, I couldn't," Hikari sighs. I hold her hand as she steps off the swing, changing her position to sitting on it instead. "Does that make me selfish?"

"No."

I want to tell her that it's Eiji who is selfish for trying to force his moving plans onto Hikari. I decide against it. It's not a wise idea to speak shit about Eiji when she's obviously hurt about it all. They _had _been dating for three years. It's not like she's going to get over him overnight.

"Do you think I have a chance to meet somebody else?" she grimly asks me.

"I'm sure you will," I say with absolute confidence.

I know she can.

Hikari's pretty attractive enough. I've known her for too long that as innocent, kind and gentle as she is, she's a pro at manipulating, playing push-and-pull, and having most men cave at her feet. Sometimes I think she's the most natural at charming anybody out of our group - and by our group, I'm meaning my older brother with his rockstar aura, even toppling over Mimi's flirtatious giggling and Taichi's listless, creative pick-up lines. Hikari charms people without knowing that she's doing it. That's one of her quiet strong points, but I never tell her that.

I mean, how else has she landed in more relationships than I have? Fine, maybe I know my number of relationships would have been greater if I actually put an effort into them. Maybe if it weren't for my commitment phobia I'd be settled by now, married, and having five children living in wilderness? Right?

The thing is, I relatively like being single. I'm not going to lie that whenever it comes to women, I've been fooling around most of my life. Once any girlfriend of mine starts to plan the future, asks about an engagement ring, plans a wedding, or mentions about me getting introduced to her parents...I cut her out immediately.

Career has been my main focus because I want to know what I want first before having another person intrude, factoring and influencing my life, holding me back and making me regret job opportunities that I should have taken. How else could I have scored that one-off project of travelling for six months last year, assisting on the updated encyclopaedia-worth of the remaining animals in the Amazon rainforest? How else could I have been involved in covering that fashion show in Paris?

"I wish I could just be like some other girls. The loyal, lovestruck ones that can leave everything behind to be with their partner. I can't though, you know? I can't take the risk. Everything for me is here. Family, friends, stability-"

I tease, "Me?"

"And of course you, you idiot," she laughs. My throat dries up when she looks at me, eyes still shimmering with tears. I can't look at her like this. I take a step back and resort to holding the chains and pushing them, so that she is swinging, feet dancing in the air.

"...besides, you know how bad my English is. I almost failed class because I had done so poorly in the exams. Don't laugh! I know you're laughing-"

I am. Hikari was _terrible_ at English. Maybe she's right that it would have been a bad idea to go to Canada.

Her body lurches backwards, almost falling off the swings. She dips her head back and glares at me. "You didn't have to agree with me!"

"Come on, Hikari. You know that you were bad at it."

"Fine. Don't deny that I'm a better gymnast though," she states.

To prove a point, she slides off the swing. I gape as she climbs onto the seat, standing onto it again - she's in the same form she was when I had discovered her at the park minutes ago. I'm gripping onto the rails to make the swing still, considering she's not doing a great job at it. In fact, she's not holding them at all.

"I can do a handstand." She's challenging nobody but herself.

My fingers wrap around her wrist from moving. She tries to shake me off.

"What?" she snaps. "Do you think I can't do it?"

_Damn it!_

People are wrong when they say that Hikari isn't similar to Taichi. If you delve hard enough, there are common traits that the Yagami siblings hold. Right now, the competitive spark in her eyes are frighteningly resembling Taichi.

"It's not that I think you can't do it, HIkari-"

A high-pitched shriek fills the air, followed by the wind knocking the fuck out of me as I'm flung onto the ground. I wince at the blunt pieces of bark that edge onto my back. If I weren't wearing the coat as an outer layer, I'd be in triple the pain. The most I'll get out of it tomorrow morning is a disarray of sore bruises.

But that's not what is on my mind.

What is on my mind is that she is _on _me. I had literally broken Hikari's fall. She stenches of liquor and tangerine. Whenever she drinks, for some odd reason, she devours at least three of them. It's absolutely disgusting if you ask me. Having peanuts on the side, I forgive...but _tangerines? _That can't go well with one's stomach with all the acidity. Of course I've told her a million times, but she never listens.

Confirming this, I take her hand and hold it into front of my face to get a good angle. Sure enough, it's stained orange.

She takes me holding her hand into account, conjuring up a different reason why I'm gripping it.

"You've said that you always liked me, Takeru."

I suck in my breath. _Ah, shit_. This is getting dangerous. She's on me, and I need to move...but do I really need to?

My mouth forms a smile, going on with the situation we are currently in. "Is that so?"

"Ah huh," she responds, nodding. "And you know what I'd always reply back to you with?"

I smirk, daring to ask, "What?"

"That you weren't ready for my yet." She comments, "You'd profess your love to me in your fucking sarcastic tone, then you'd say you didn't want to wreck our friendship-"

"Perhaps that _is _true," I agree.

I want to say that I'm ready now, but I know it would be bad timing - not when she's drunk like this.

Sabotaging our friendship by us potentially getting together had been one of my fears. As years went past, as she began to date other guys, I realised that - possibly - not trying to be with her began to sabotage me more.

Now that I think about it, I've always liked her.

Hikari's the only woman, the only person who has gotten my heart pattering like a swooning adolescence. She's the only person I'd race out to in the middle of the night, to check on, to see if she was alright. She's the first person who stole my first kiss. The first person to expose me to worry, guilt, envy. Yet, she's the only person who can get me clutching on my stomach from laughing too much.

If someone assigned me to write an essay about her, I'd never be able to complete it. There's so much to her that means so much to me, that even I could not write anything worthy enough to describe her when putting pen to paper. It would be an insult to her.

I release my hold from her, my fingers dancing up and down her spine before I can help myself. She lets out a soft grown. It takes all my willpower to reach up, rest my hand around her head and force her lips to drop down onto mine. It takes all my willpower to repeat that same thing that we've done in the past. We are at the same park where we had our first kiss, the same spot were we had secretly downed a shared a bottle of wine and experimented, even though I know for sure it hadn't been an experiment for me. I had meant every moment of it.

"What if I take my words back?" She whispers. "What if I _try_ to wreck our friendship?"

"I wouldn't want to take advantage of you…"

She laughs, leaning in and drawls, "It's never stopped you before."

"True." I give a crooked grin.

She's pushing up against me, her sweet perfume stinging my nostrils. Her usual immaculate, with no-strand-out-of-place hair is slightly scruffy. As she gazed down on me, I note the unintentionally suggestive, smudged eyeliner from the old tears she shed.

We've been in worse situations before, and in many of these occasions we later pretend that the silent, drumming attraction is non-existent.

"Then what's stopping you, Takeru?"

"It would be too easy," I comment. "I'd prefer not to be your rebound. Where's the fun in that?"

And because, deep down, I know that if Hikari was sober, she'd be horrified by her current actions. Besides, if she wants to play our continuous game I'd rather her be aware of what she's doing.

I bite my bottom lip, trying real hard not to laugh. She's too cute right now. I turn my neck so that I'm not staring directly at her face. Her face is too close to me. Her breathing is tickling my neck that I'm so close, that I'm so tempted to close in the space between us.

"Well, frankly, you're no fun," she mutters.

Hikari uses her right hand to tilt my jaw at her direction, to ensure that I don't avoid her anymore. I concede, settling for an embrace instead. My arms find their way around her body, hands resting above her lower back. She wriggles upwards, the friction of our clothing rubbing against each other, as she gets a better look at me. There's a small smile on her lips. I hold a hand out before she tries to steal a kiss.

She's giggling into my palm while I chuckle at how ridiculous this is.

With the same hand, I touch the back of her head - not for a kiss, but to manoeuvre her downwards so that her head is against my chest. I play with her hair and although she was giggling earlier, I can tell that the laughter has dispersed from her eyes without looking at her face. She's trembling, sobbing and dampening my shirt. She's remembering Eiji.

Her crying ceases, body relaxed. From the way she's breathing, I know she's fallen asleep.

It's greedy, but I don't move straight away from the position and hail a cab for us. Maybe I do like taking advantage of her because, lately, she seems to also take advantage of me. Maybe it's time for me to stop being the default idiot, pining for her from the background. Eiji's out of the picture. I have no more excuses and, well, she doesn't either.

"When I've waited this long, I can wait a bit longer," I mutter to myself, sneaking a kiss on the side of her head.

Leaning back, I stare up at the blank sky, wondering what will come next.

She's worth the wait.

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**(a/n) **It feels like eons since I've written a Takari. This one wrote itself on random. It just - somehow - wanted to be told, so I wrote it. A friendship/mild romance considering it is debatably semi-unrequited. Hope you've enjoyed this one :)


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